


all water and everything in it

by taonsils (mirokkuma)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Junmyeon’s Birthday Week 2020, M/M, Smooching, merfolk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24272497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirokkuma/pseuds/taonsils
Summary: Junmyeon’s tried approximately nine different foods since Chanyeol came splashing into his life, and most have not been a pleasant experience.
Relationships: Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 12
Kudos: 62
Collections: Challenge #2 — Merfolk





	all water and everything in it

As he does every Sunday since he started renting this place, Junmyeon is sitting beside the pool. Feet in the water, the sun on his skin, and a large plate of sliced vegetables in his lap.

Chanyeol’s elbows are propped on the warm paving, puddles forming and drying around him. His tail sways lazily in the water behind him, shimmering. It’s the colours of an oil slick.

“What next?” Junmyeon hovers his pointer finger over the plate. Chanyeol reaches across and takes a chunk of carrot, then with a little splash surges closer to take a look at what’s left. 

“Try..” He hums, tilts his head. Water from his hair drips onto Junmyeon’s thigh. He frowns thoughtfully and crunches the carrot up, swallows, and gestures his webbed hand towards the left side of the plate. “Broccoli.”

Junmyeon scans the plate with his finger. He circles around twice, near to where Chanyeol pointed out. Hmm, no, not here..

Chanyeol makes a sort of huffing, bubbling sound in his gills. “Human, you _can’t_ not know- the tiny tree.” 

Junmyeon laughs, kicking his feet in the water. Chanyeol scowls as though he actually minds being splashed. “I was joking! Of course I know what it is.” Though he’s never actually eaten any raw. One tiny, tentative bite and he realises why.

  
Chanyeol kind of came with the property. There’d been something unofficial in the paperwork about protected species and duty of care, and Junmyeon had anticipated maybe being responsible for putting up a sign, or fencing off a part of the garden. Perhaps not making changes to an area of the building. As it turns out, a merman finding a way to make it from the beach into a beachside property pool qualifies him as being protected by the land. And Chanyeol’s necessity for protection is that he refuses to eat fish. Scavenging for food had been making him sick when most of what he could get his fins on was greasy and processed. And so, as a protected species, Junmyeon’s duty of care is to make sure he doesn’t fade away from malnutrition.

The problem is, Junmyeon doesn’t cook. Junmyeon doesn’t _like_ vegetables, especially the fresh kind that are sometimes damp, often dirty, and on the unfortunate occasion may have a tiny friend or two living inside. He eats like a picky child but with the luxury of being able to do so as he pleases, only ordering what he likes and throwing out the icky green parts with no one to make him stay at the table and eat them. 

  
Junmyeon nibbles on a halved cherry tomato while Chanyeol is finishing off the rest of the plate. He’s so far doing a good job of peeling the skin away with his teeth and avoiding the squashy flesh. Junmyeon’s tried approximately nine different foods since Chanyeol came splashing into his life, and most have not been a pleasant experience. 

“Thanks for the meal,” Chanyeol says as always. He pushes away from the pool wall and the plane of muscle across his broad back flexes and shifts, and when he catches Junmyeon looking he wrinkles his nose at him. 

It hasn’t _all_ been unwanted experiences, Junmyeon thinks, then with a grimace pops the rest of the tomato into his mouth. It’s wet, and so are his fingers. Ick.

Chanyeol is keenly observant, splashing back to the pool edge before Junmyeon has even moved. “Do _not_ clean that off in my pool water.”

“My pool, my water.”

“All water and everything in it is more mine than it is yours,” Chanyeol retaliates, and whether that’s debatable or not, he’s hauled up onto his elbows and leaning in for the sticky hand Junmyeon’s holding away from himself. Chanyeol has needle sharp teeth and a cold tongue, and..he’s careful, dutifully so, and it’s really not all that unpleasant.

Junmyeon slowly curves his wrist to give Chanyeol access to his palm. He’s finally developing a tan from all this time he spends in too close a proximity to water for bundling himself up. His hair is sun bleached and still sticky with salt water from yesterdays date, when it was his turn to visit Chanyeol. When he swims out into the ocean with his merman they just look like humans enjoying the beach together, so long as Chanyeol doesn’t smile at anyone. Which he is prone to doing. 

It’s nicer kissing in the privacy of the pool, anyway. Or at least it is until Junmyeon tilts in a little too keenly, fumbles for where to plant his hand down for balance, and knocks the empty plate into the water. Chanyeol jerks back in surprise, and with his other arm looped around Chanyeol’s shoulders, Junmyeon follows the plate. (He makes a slightly larger splash)

Chanyeol frowns, having instinctively scooped Junmyeon up as though he’ll struggle in a pool shallow enough for him to stand in. “Your phone wasn’t in your clothing?” he asks, but the fact Junmyeon is just giggling and shaking his wet hair from his eyes seems to confirm that. Good. Humans tend to get very upset when phones are near water. Not that Chanyeol has ever borrowed one for research or anything.

“I already spent yesterday swimming with you,” Junmyeon smiles, situating himself against Chanyeol’s chest and letting himself fall as dead weight into an embrace. There’s nothing too urgent that an impromptu date will harm. 

For a moment they drift together, comfortably silent. Strong, lazy sweeps of Chanyeol’s tail keep them both afloat. Chanyeol clears his throat. “So, there seems to be a contaminate in my water.”

Junmyeon pouts. “I didn’t mean to knock the-”

“It’s noisy. And wriggling.”

“Fine,” Junmyeon huffs playfully, “I had busy human things to do anyway.” He gently pushes away towards the pool edge, but an arm hooks around him before he can climb out, easily drawing him back.

“Everything in water is mine,” Chanyeol reminds him, and maybe Junmyeon has no complaints with that theory after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Junmyeon eventually sets up a little camping area for himself so they can talk about stars together and (carefully) search on his tablet for constellations Chanyeol has never known the names for ✨ 
> 
> thank you for running this! and thank you to gf for reading it over at short notice :*


End file.
